rotten tomatoes replaces human film critics with AI in world first experiment
In a move that has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, Rotten Tomatoes has announced a bold pilot program replacing its human-approved critic scoring system entirely with AI-generated audience reviews for all independent films released after 2026. The platform claims the new "Automated Consensus Engine" can analyze social media sentiment, box office trends, and streaming data to produce a "rotten" or "fresh" rating within 30 seconds of a movie's premiere, eliminating weeks of delay from traditional critic aggregation. Early tests on a sci-fi thriller saw the AI assign a 92% fresh score before human critics had even left the theater, with micro-targeted breakdowns for genre enthusiasts. Critics’ unions have already filed a federal lawsuit, arguing the move will "devalue artistic interpretation" and destroy careers. But Rotten Tomatoes CEO Mara Liu promises the shift will "democratize the rating system" and predict Oscar winners with 94% accuracy by 2028. "Within a decade, a film’s fate won't depend on a handful of voices in New York or L.A.," Liu said in a leaked internal memo. "It’ll be decided by the real audience—instant, everywhere, and always fresh."